51 views

Jamie Gillis was an American pornographic actor, director and Member of the AVN Hall Of Fame.

Born as, Jamey (James) Ira Gurman, on 20 April 1943 in New York City into a Jewish family and graduated from Columbia University.

After graduating with honors from Columbia University in 1970, he became an aspiring theater actor and mime artist supporting himself by working part time as a taxi driver.

In 1971, he answered an advertisement in the, "Village Voice", for a nude model; this lead to work performing in short films (known as, "loops") and subsequently in the first wave of explicit adult feature films.

Jamie Gillis was the first male superstar of porn.

He made his motion picture debut in the 1971 film, "Love In The Rain".
His many film credits include: "Dynamite" (1972), "High Rise" (1973), "Road Service" (1973), "Wild Girls" (1974), "Illusions Of A Lady" (1974), "Oriental Blue" (1975), "The Story Of Joanna" (1975), "The Opening Of Misty Beethoven" (1976), "Obsessed" (1977), "Barbara Broadcast" (1977) and "Fiona on Fire" ( 1978 ).

He appeared in more than 470 movies as an actor.

He also directed several adult movies.

Gillis died on 19 February 2010 in New York City from Melanoma, which was diagnosed four or five months earlier.

~ Take the Polls:

"02. Name Your Favorite .... Pornographic actress from the 1970s", and "02a. Name Your Favorite .... Pornographic actor from the 1970s"

Gillis recited Shakespeare during his sex shows in the early 1970s to make them socially redeeming to deter police busts.

Openly bisexual, Gillis appeared in many Gay porn films, including a sex scene with another actor in the 1975 bisexual film, "The Story Of Joanna".

Despite the occasional foray into "legitimate" mainstream Hollywood film, such as a cameo in, "Nighthawks" (1981), starring Sylvester Stallone, in which he played Lindsay Wagner's boss, Gillis remained identified with the porn industry, and is regarded as one of its most prolific and potent actors.

Gillis graduated from Columbia University in 1970.
Gillis was trained as a legitimate film actor and an aspiring actor. While he was working as a New York City cabbie, Gillis appeared in several off Broadway classical play productions like, "Hamlet", before beginning an extensive film career in the adult motion picture industry when he answered an ad in the Village Voice and — ka-boom! — he found himself making porn loops.

If ever there was a need for a trained actor, or to fill the bill for a really unusual role in 1970s porn, they’d usually call Jamie Gillis. You might say he was the Harvey Keitel of porno.

He is a pioneer in the pornographic style known as, "Gonzo".

In addition to starring in the first, "Buttman", film he also created the influential, "On The Prowl" series: featuring a porn star who rides in a limo looking for regular guys to have sex with, the video series was very popular and inspired a scene in the movie, "Boogie Nights" (1997).

He also co-produced the popular,"Dirty Debutante" series with fellow director and performer, Ed Powers, as well as the, "Walking Toilet Bowl" series of films that focused on Golden Showers and Coprophilia.

He was the recipient of several adult film actor and director awards, and an inductee into both the Adult Video News (AVN) Hall Of Fame and the X-Rated Critics Organization ( XRCO ) Hall Of Fame. In 2002 he was ranked as the 12th most popular male porn star of all time by Adult Video News.

Gillis worked in the most important movies that were ever made in American erotic cinema — titles like, "The Opening Of Misty Beethoven" (1976), directed by Radley Metzger; and director Richard Mahler's, "Midnight Heat" (1983).

Twenty years into his career, Gillis originated what came to be called, "Gonzo Porn", simultaneously (and accidentally) pioneering the reality show genre. He hired a girl, a camera and a limo, and cruised San Francisco's North Beach to find fellas who'd be willing to have sex with her on camera, right on the spot. The series was called, "On the Prowl".

In 1971, he answered an advertisement in the Village Voice for a nude model:
But, this "nude modeling" was really all about a dirty basement on 14th Street where some guy shot sex movies. Gillis showed up there, worked for about an hour, had a good time, made as much money as he would have driving a cab, and that's how he started. Actually, a lot of people started there in that dirty basement - Linda Lovelace, Eric Edwards, etc., but there were no stars in those days, no industry.
It was all underground.

Later on, this same guy in the dirty basement put Gillis in a Times Square sex show in the afternoon because Gillis was still doing the plays at night. And one day the manager of the live-sex theater said, "Next week you can start working at nights".
Gillis said, "What are you outta your fuckin' mind? I'm doing 'great' plays at night".

And during the live shows, Gillis would even be reading poetry or reciting Shakespeare because there was always the threat that the police would bust and raid you, so it was a way of giving it socially redeeming value.

Jamie enjoyed one of the industry's famous romances with porn star, Serena.
"Jamie Gillis, for instance", writes Kitten Natividad, "likes to take his girlfriend Serena out for a walk in public wearing a dog Collar. Or, he enjoys bringing home a bunch of Puerto Rican 'Gang Bang' types he's just met on the street, and asks them to fuck his old lady".

"Harry Reems and Jamie Gillis loved to smash chicks around", remembers Veronica Hart.

Around 1973, Gillis appeared with Mᴀʀɪʟʏɴ Cʜᴀᴍʙᴇʀs on Tom Snyder's, "Tomorrow Show".
The two flirted so much that the studio crew's nervous laughter could be heard. Gillis says Snyder knew lots about Lɪɴᴅᴀ Lᴏᴠᴇʟᴀᴄᴇ and, "Deep Throat", but when the show came on, Snyder asked, "There's this woman in the industry, Linda .... what's her name?"

Bisexual Jamie Gillis excelled in nasty roles such as that of the 'Enema Bandit' in, "Waterpower" (1975), (incorrectly attributed, often, to Gerry Damiano). "He'll scare you to death in this one", promises Bob Rimmer: "Jamie plays a sex pervert - an 'Enema Bandit' who accosts women in their apartments, ties them up and before he them gives them an enema (supposedly based on a true incident). Thinking about his first victim, an airline stewardess whom he has watched screwing through a telescope in his apartment, he says: ["She's dirty. Just a toilet. If I cleaned her out she would be clean again. She'd thank me. She'd be glad I cleaned her out"]. Damiano gives this SexVid a long, scary buildup with Jamie discovering that he is orgasmic when he watches an enema being given to a woman in a sex palace called, Garden Of Eden, which specializes in B&D, S&M, Infantilism, cross dressing, French and Greek cultures and high Colonic Irrigations. Suspected by a policewoman, C.J. Laing, he captures her and Tortures her in a long frightening sequence. The agony of the enemas is written on his victims' faces. Whatever your shock feeling may be, you'll watch this from beginning to end, and you'll have to admit that both the acting and cinematography are great. Worth owning - if only to initiate discussions on whether a film like this should ever be made".

Gillis also appeared in what is generally regarded as the best porn film of all time, "The Opening Of Misty Beethoven" ((1976). It was a film which brought together the top people in the porn field. Radley Metzger had a sense of how to make a movie. It's a lovely film. Still very much watchable. Actually, while were making it, Gillis loved getting up every day to shoot because he was just crazy about Constance money. Nuts about her! Jᴏʜɴ Lᴇsʟɪᴇ was nuts about her, too.

Around 1990, Jamie made a series of untitled urination and defecation flicks for a sex shop in New York City. He wore a mask during the shooting, but even though his face is not visible, the body and soul clearly belongs to Jamie.

In the R-rated film, "Boogie Nights" (1997), the Burt Reynolds character imitates Jamie's short-lived, "On The Prowl" pro-am series at the end of the 1980s. Gillis rented limousines, and took porn girls for a ride. They cruised the streets of San Francisco picking up single men and videotaped them boinking the girls in the backseat.

Gillis told San Francisco's Spectator magazine October 1999:
The "On The Prowl" series was the first video of its kind to be labelled "Gonzo." These days, however, everyone else is really not doing what I consider Gonzo. My idea was to do live, spontaneous stuff with real people who were not connected to the porn industry. I wanted to find people on the street and say, 'Hey, buddy, you wanna get laid?' I mean, that doesn't always work, either; people are a little bit mystified by the whole thing. But the upside is that they're not performers with really fake energy which you see so much of in porn today, which I hate. It's that 'ooh-ah, ooh-ah, do-me-baby' thing. Gimme a break. It was boring for the most part - and today it's even worse. And after I did the original, "On The Prowl", other people caught on and made it more of a set-up situation, more of a commercial product".

Next, Jamie hooked up with Ed Powers as the, 'Nasty Brothers', doing on-camera interviews with amateurs before defiling them in hotel rooms.

After a stint as one of the, 'Nasty Brothers', in producer Ed Powers' series of amateur, "Dirty Debutantes" series, Gillis began branching out to produce homemade porn videos of his own, some of them made in France (where he was able to show off his command of the French language).

Never having made a secret of his bisexuality, Gillis made his first all-Gay porn film in 1997, a Sado-Masochistic video in which he did not actually perform sex acts, but rather issued orders to the other Members of the cast.

Since 1989, Gillis has lived in San Francisco.

In his thirty year career, he has performed under a record number of aliases, including but not limited to: Al Cianelli, Buster Hymen, Dorian Patch, Jaime Gillis, Jaimie Gillis, James Gillis, James Kleeman, James Rugman, Jamie Smith, Ronny Morgan and Sir Jamie Gillis.

Ethnicity: Caucasian, Jewish-American

Height: 5' 11"

Weight: 182 lbs.

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Salt and Pepper

Number Of Adult Films:
409, as Actor
12, as Director
14, Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
7, as Producer

~ As An Actor -

"Love In The Rain" (1971)

"Sexual Customs In Scandinavia" (1972)

"Forbidden Under Censorship Of The King" (1972)

"The Porn Brokers" (1973)

"Like Mother .... Like Daughter" (1973)

"Linda Can't Stop" (1973)

"Hypnorotica" (1973)

"Over Sexposure" (1973)

"It Happened In Hollywood" (1973)

"Deep Throat Part II" (1974)

"Fantasy Girls" (1974)

"Teenage Stepmother" (1974)

"The Seduction Of Lyn Carter" (1974)

"Teenage Cheerleader" (1974)

"Barbie's Fantasy" (1974)

"Teenage Playmates" (1975)

"Water Power" (1975)

"The Story Of Joanna" (1975)

"Wet Rock" (1975)

"Abigail Lesley Is Back In Town" (1975)

"The Fireworks Woman" (1975)

"Baby Oil" (1975)

"Dominatrix Without Mercy" (1976)

"Seduction" (1976)

"One Last Fling" (1976)

"The Opening Of Misty Beethoven" (1976)

"Misty" (1976)

"Through The Looking Glass" (1976)

"A Coming Of Angels" (1977)

"The Violation Of Claudia" (1977)

"Teenage Bikers" (1977)

"Sweet Wet Lips" (1977)

"Slave Of Pleasure" ( 1978 )

"Dracula Sucks" ( 1978 )

"Manhole" ( 1978 )

"All About Gloria Leonard" ( 1978 )

"Extreme Close-Up (1979)

"Taxi Girls" (1979)

"Night Of The Zombies" (1981)

"Taboo IV" (1985)

"L'Amour" ( 1988 )

"A Taste Of Money" ( 1988 )

"Pretty Peaches 2" ( 1988 )

"A Thousand and One Erotic Nights Part II: The Forbidden Tales" ( 1988 )

"Black Widow" ( 1988 )

"The Phantom Of The Cabaret" (1989)

"The Phantom Of The Cabaret II" (1989)

"They Call Me Sugar Candie" (1989)

"Alien Space Avenger" (1989)

"Takeout Torture" (1990)

"The Casting Whip" (1990)

"The Last Resort" (1990)

"The Naked Truth" (1990)

"The Violation Of Tori Welles" (1990)

"Anal Starlets" (1991)

"Daddy Gets Punished" (1991)

"Dances With Foxes" (1991)

"Domestic Training" (1992)

"Gang Bang Girl 6" (1992)

"Hard-line Sessions" (1992)

"Leather Belt, Red Cheeks" (1992)

"Inner City Black Cheerleader Search 6" (1996)

"Sex For Hire" (1996)

"Virgin Dreams" (1996)

"New Wave Hookers 5" (1997)

"Power Play" (1997)

"Back On The Prowl" ( 1998 )

"Back On The Prowl 2" ( 1998 )

"Humiliation Of Heidi" (2000)

"Edge Play" (2001)

"Sunset Stripped" (2002)

"The Night We Called It A Day" (2003)

"Die You Zombie Bastards!" (2005)

"American Swing" ( 2008 )

"The Gent" (2011)

`

~ As Director -

"On The Prowl" (1989)

"Takeout Torture" (1990)

"Nothing But Contempt" (1990)

"Abused Husband" (1990)

"Punished Sex Offenders" (1991)

"Backdoor to Paradise" (1990)

"1991 On the Prowl II" (1991)

"Daddy Gets Punished" (1991)

"On The Prowl In Paris" (1992)

"Devious Old Gillis" ( 1998 )

"Back On The Prowl" ( 1998 )

"Back On The Prowl 2" ( 1998 )

1976 AFAA Best Actor - "The Opening Of Misty Beethoven"

1977 AAFA Best Actor - "Coming Of Angels"

1979 AAFA Best Actor - "Ecstasy Girls"

1982 AFAA Best Supporting Actor - "Roommates"

1984 XRCO Best Kinky Scene - "Insatiable II"

1987 XRCO Best Actor - "Deep Throat 2"

1987 XRCO Best Supporting Actor - "Babyface 2"

1989 AVN Best Supporting Actor (Film) - "Pretty Peaches 2"

1989 XRCO Best Actor - "Second Skin"

1997 AVN Best Actor (Film) - "Bobby Sox"

1999 AVN Best Supporting Actor (Video) - "Forever Night"

AVN Hall Of Fame

Legends Of Erotica

XRCO Hall of Fame